The blogosphere is absolutely abuzz about the amazing laser etched Moleskines from this week's Fresh Shop, Modofly. It all started with a quick write up on moleskinerie.com, the site dedicated to that ubiquitous little black notebook used by writers and artists 'round the globe. And then the landslide began: boingboing, gawker, MAKE, dailyDIY, thisnext (... and I'm sure there have been even more rebloggings of it that I haven't even found yet).
And really, I can't blame the bloggers for going bananas. Modofly combines some of the best things ever: Moleskine + laser + unicorn! Or, if you happen to somehow dislike unicorns (really?), they've got a full arsenal of highly detailed graphics to tickle anyone's fancy. Plus they have entertainingly well-written item descriptions; check out how they describe The Rhino. Since joining Etsy just about two weeks ago, Modofly has already sold over 80 items.
I snagged about five minutes of time from these busy gents for a quick Storque-exclusive interview this morning. Here's the skinny on Modofly, straight from the lads with the lasers.
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Can you tell us a little about the people behind Modofly? Who are you and what makes you tick?
Modofly is currently two amazingly ADHD people named Jordan and Kevin. We have a design background which thankfully doesn't hinder us from creating cool things (we hope!). We are both dangerously entrepreneurial and love collaboration (which we will be doing with other Esty'ers and others once we crawl out of the amazing response we have received!). We also try to not take ourselves too seriously as we often find that to be a downside of people trained in design, so please forgive our mock arrogance and "showboatmenship" in our descriptions. We do it in fun ;)
We both have done a good deal of digital graphics over the years, but have a love for old illustrations (as you can tell), and can only hope that by doing our books, it will inspire people to bring back the cool looks of yesteryear!
Things that make us tick. Great graphics, good design, unique things, steampunk, Victorian images, and just about anything else that catches our eye due to detail.
What inspires you as creative people?
Everything inspires us. Negative. Positive. Anything. We try to capture inspiration whenever it happens.
Did you sell your goods before joining Etsy? If so, how has Etsy changed your business?
Etsy was the first place we posted. We have admired it for awhile now, and think that the community aspect of it makes much more sense than a lone website, so we posted here.
Etsy has floored us. We posted our stuff in Etsy and on Flickr, and one blog posted us within a day (www.moleskinerie.com). We had several hits from it, and then www.boingboing.com was next, and it was all madness from there! Thanks Etsy!
How long have you been making stuff? When/how did the laser-etched Moleskines come about? (No need to divulge trade secrets here.)
Jordan started playing with moleskines and lasers about two years ago to distinguish his book from the millions of others. People kept asking him to make them one, and insisting he should sell them. After teaming up (with Kevin), we decided, as an experiment, to see if there was any interest. A dear friend of ours had us do some books around Christmas to give to clients, and this provided some seed money that helped make our initial (1st gen) of books.
Any special marketing tips you'd like to share with other newbie Etsy sellers?
First make sure what you have is waaaay cool. That seems obvious but it's not. Find out from others if your idea is as cool as you think it is. Everybody's baby is the cutest baby, so make sure you aren't showing it to just friends.
Community, community, community. Get connected. You can't just sell your stuff on your own. And when others help, make sure you do as well (our thanks and linkbacks will be coming soon!).
How do you like Etsy so far? What are your favorite features of the site? What might you like to see done differently/new features?
We LOVE Etsy. The best part to us is the community aspect. Again, no business is about being alone. You need others, and you need to help others. Etsy does this.
What we would love to see is a better tail end of the sales system. Some way to codify all sales into one smart manifest of some kind that organizes all the data. After being slammed with all the orders we have had, organization has become a time black hole!
Thanks everyone, and thanks Etsy!
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Thank you, Kevin and Jordan, for bringing the "single most obnoxiously precious item ever"* to Etsy. We salute you, Modofly.
* title bestowed by Gawker